Ireland, Politics on the Pitch

Clare Balding visits Croke Park in Dublin, to discover the story behind the formation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and it's founder Michael Cusack. All this week in Sport and the British Clare has been exploring how sport defined and gave an independence to the nations of the British Isles, nowhere is this more evident and vocal than in Ireland. The GAA defined what it was to be Irish - meaning how far removed that is from being English and hurling and Irish football were a way of exemplifying that. Clare talks to Dr Paul Rouse of University College Dublin and Professor Michael Cronin of Boston College Ireland about the history and future of the GAA.
The reader is Jonathan Forbes
Producer: Lucy Lunt.